PCE data, Amazon dethrones Walmart, Silicon Valley’s ‘vanlords’ and more in Morning Squawk

Happy Friday. I’ve spent the last 24 hours going back and forth on whether I need to hop on the “dad shoe” trend.

Stock futures are little changed this morning. The major indexes are coming off a down day.

Here are five key things investors need to know to start the trading day:

Wall Street returned to its hunt for artificial intelligence losers yesterday, once again zeroing in on software names. The three major averages all closed Thursday’s session in the red.

Here’s what to know:

Economic data nerds, rejoice: We’re getting December’s personal consumption expenditures price index report, also known as the Federal Reserve’s favorite inflation gauge, at 8:30 a.m. ET. Gross domestic product, consumer spending and income data are also on the docket for this morning.

These reports follow yesterday’s data on the U.S. trade deficit, which came in at $901.5 billion for the full 2025 year. As CNBC’s Jeff Cox notes, that’s a 0.2% decrease from the prior year, despite Trump’s broad and steep tariffs.

Speaking of tariffs: There’s a chance the Supreme Court will rule on the legality of many of Trump’s levies this morning. Regardless of when the ruling comes and which way it sides, the court’s decision could have big implications for consumers and companies.

There’s a new king of the retail jungle by one measure. Amazon dethroned Walmart in annual revenue for the first time ever.

Walmart said yesterday that it saw $713.2 billion in revenue for its latest fiscal year, below the $716.9 billion figure that Amazon reported. About a year ago, Amazon beat Walmart in quarterly revenue for the first time.

Meanwhile, Bath & Body Works announced this morning that it launched an authorized storefront on Amazon. It’s the home goods retailer’s latest push to hawk products outside of its namesake storefronts.

In California, skyrocketing rents and a housing shortage are pushing an increasing number of people to live in RVs. As CNBC’s Kate Rogers and Jeff Kopp report, that’s created a shadow rental market led by what some are calling the “vanlords.”

It’s a particularly acute problem in Silicon Valley’s Santa Clara County, despite being home to Apple and Google, as well as some of the costliest zip codes in the country. Government data for the county shows the share of individuals sleeping in cars has jumped from 18% in 2019 to 37% last year.

Advocates say RVs are a popular option because they provide more autonomy than a shelter or streets. But there’s a network of people looking to cash in on others’ misfortunes by renting out aging RVs to those searching for housing without a lease or tenant protections.

Remember when job hopping was the key to big wage gains? That’s increasingly in the rearview mirror, data shows.

The gap between pay increases for workers staying and leaving jobs fell below 2 percentage points last month, according to the ADP. That’s down from a peak of 8.4 points in April 2022, when the “great resignation” was economists’ hot term.

To be sure, the pay outlook varies by industry. There’s still notable compensatory incentives for employees in sectors like construction or natural resources to switch jobs, while you’re better off staying for pay bumps in hospitality and leisure.

Here are some articles we’d recommend making time for over the weekend:

— CNBC’s Sean Conlon, Hugh Leask, Spencer Kimball, Liz Napolitano, Jeff Cox, Greg Iacurci, Annie Palmer, Courtney Reagan, Kate Rogers and Jeff Kopp contributed to this report. Josephine Rozzelle edited this edition.

Correction: Walmart said yesterday that it saw $713.2 billion in revenue for its latest fiscal year, below the $716.9 billion figure that Amazon reported. About a year ago, Amazon beat Walmart in quarterly revenue for the first time. An earlier version misstated the figures and the ranking of the companies’ revenue numbers.